This thesis examines cultural representation and identity formation in Chinese American literature since 1976. Written as it is from a Chinese perspective, this thesis emphasizes the importance of the cultural and social context in which Chinese American literature is produced. It points to the "becoming" of Chinese American identity, and contests the shaping force of race and ethnicity and the persistence of "Othering." It also develops a critical discourse to suggest ways and perspectives of reading Chinese American literature. This thesis covers a wide range of Chinese American texts, which, among others, include Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Lane (1996), Gus Lee's China Boy (1991), Maxine Hong Kongston's The Woman Warrior (1976) and China Men (1980), Mei Ng's Eating Chinese Food Naked (1998), David Wong Louie's The Barbarians Are Coming (2000), Lan Samantha Chang's Hunger (1998) and Ha Jin's Waiting (1999). Chapter 1 foregrounds the importance of materiality and historicity upon which Chinese American ethnicity and identity are performed and invented. Chapter II and Chapter III provide an analysis of four key aspects of Chinese American identity and its representation in literature: language, myth, food and the body. Chapter IV discusses Chinese American identity at the disjuncture of Asian American studies and Chinese diaspora discourse in the form of melancholia. Chapter V examines the neo-Orientalist tendency in works in the Western market written by Chinese immigrant writers in English about China. To conclude the thesis with a brief survey of some most recently published works is to suggest that Chinese American literature is an ongoing construction site, which is the underlying principle of this thesis.